Quote:McClay said that if Kiwi consumers used "a virtual private network" (VPN) to make it appear they lived outside the country with goal of avoiding GST, they would be liable for a fine of up to $25,000.

Quote:McClay said that if Kiwi consumers used "a virtual private network" (VPN) to make it appear they lived outside the country with goal of avoiding GST, they would be liable for a fine of up to $25,000.

Quote:McClay said that if Kiwi consumers used "a virtual private network" (VPN) to make it appear they lived outside the country with goal of avoiding GST, they would be liable for a fine of up to $25,000.

Sorry guys, not gonna work out to be much cheaper.

Although it is legal to use a VPN to access online media that is otherwise not available in New Zealand, so it'll be interesting to see how(if) they police it.

No way I'm going to test those waters though, with all those zeros behind that dollar sign. It would be up to the government rather than any company to chase up on this stuff as well, they're the ones who would stand to lose after all.

Quote:The biggest problem with the so-called "Netflix tax" is consumers could be fined up to $25,000 if they use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to pretend their computer is overseas when buying an online service.

Then again they may not.

The thing is, it will all depend on the consumer's motivation.

If they are using a VPN to trick a foreign company into not charging them New Zealand GST, that would be illegal.

But if they were using a VPN to access content that was blocked in New Zealand, for example for copyright reasons, then it seems that would be okay.

Tens of thousands of Kiwis are believed to use VPNs to access the US version of Netflix.

So how would Inland Revenue know whether someone was doing that to avoid paying GST on the New Zealand version of Netflix, or because they wanted to access Netflix content that wasn't available here?